


How Poor and Childish the Light Seems Now

by MatchLight



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Apocalypse, Body Horror, Haki (One Piece), M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Survival, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-07-14 17:38:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16045316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MatchLight/pseuds/MatchLight
Summary: Something strange was happening, causing peculiar mutations in living creatures. Soon, civilisation turned into a lawless, violent mess where status is determined by physical power. Money no longer mattered, and society decayed with the rapid deterioration of human morals.Sanji used to work at a restaurant located in the epicentre of this apocalypse. On his journey to escape, he came across an ex mafia member - Katakuri. Will they help each other in this time of crisis?NOTE: Not going to be updated for a very long time (possibly years). Sorry.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've realised that the Anime is currently up to Luffy VS Katakuri, and assumed that there would be more Katakuri works now. However, when I checked the tag, there's only 97!! So I decided to contribute! Also, I would like to thank Enziroth, as their works had introduced me to Katasan! 
> 
> Title taken from Novalis poem: Hymns to the Night.

It was unusually loud outside the kitchen. Faint noises of shouting and arguing could be heard over the sizzling and clacking sounds of cooking. Sanji shoved his saucepan to another chef and dusted his hands on his apron. He sighed deeply through his nose. Some customers must be acting difficult in the diner again.

The day was not Sanji’s best. For some bizarre reason, the morning’s shipment of supplies was poor in quality. Meat cuts looked dull instead of a glassy red. Some greens were also withered, and it would be a sin to serve them in a salad. He spent hours on the phone, hours that he could have used to prepare food, to call the suppliers.

Instead of getting an apology and a new truckload of ingredients like he’d expected, the secretary on the other side of the line denied everything Sanji had told her and accused him of trying to scam them for ‘freebies’.

Unwilling to throw anything away, Sanji and a few other chefs had to quickly change their menu before opening hours, and that most dishes would be heavily sauced.

So dealing with bothersome customers was the last thing he wanted to do.

Sanji went to grab a serving plate and realised the slight tremors in his hand. He could really use a smoke right now. But his boss wouldn’t allow any forms of tobacco in the kitchen. So he gripped the plate a little tighter, and pretended that whatever was going on outside wasn’t happening.

Just as he was getting ready to plate, a server girl burst into the kitchen. Through the opening and closing of the double doors, he saw a glimpse of the chaos. Chairs were overturned, some guests were at each other’s necks, but most unforgivably, there was unfinished food, some left on the plate, and some even thrown on the ground.

“Sanji!” the girl called out, her voice slightly distorted by her panic, “You have to go outside! Something’s wrong!”

The girl was huffing and coughing, and tears welled in her eyes. Her frightened stance made Sanji stopped plating and looked up. Surely there couldn’t be anything wrong with the food they’re serving. Yes, the ingredients were not the best, but he made sure as hell that the food was still safe to eat and tasted good. He really saw no need to cause such a mess over some chef’s mistakes.

The girl again urged him to go. Sanji swore, if someone was here to sabotage…

With a kick, he smacked open the kitchen door but instantly gagged before he had the chance to shout at whichever bastard that caused this wreck. The other chefs around him also stopped what they were doing and covered their nose.

The smell hit Sanji in the face like a metal baseball bat. The dining area was clouded with an eye stinging sour stench. He coughed as he tried to swallow his nauseousness.

This was not the sweetly aroma of vinegar, nor the fresh citric sent of lemon. But the repulsing smell of decomposition.

The room was worse than what he had seen. Most customers were arguing with poor waiters, some were fist fighting and only a few tried to pull them apart. The other chefs went against the smell and ran in, trying to resolve the chaos. Ceramic and glass shards crushed beneath people’s feet. There were stains on the floor that Sanji was unsure if it was wine or something more unpleasant.

He dodged the mess around him and bent down to look at the food. Most of the stuff was discoloured and some was even reduced to a dry and greying substance. This was ridiculous! He thought back to the ingredients from before. They were not the freshest bunch, but at least the food was fine when he served them half an hour ago.

How could they have already rotted to such a degree as if they were left out for days!

Sanji quickly ran back inside the kitchen and tore open the fridge door. The ingredients looked worse than the state that they had arrived in, but significantly better than the food outside. He looked around and noticed that he was alone.

He considered calling his boss and tell him about the situation. But on second thought, his boss probably already knew about it.

Sanji was considerably new as a chef in this restaurant, only been here for 2 years. Of course this was only temporary, or so he told himself. Once he had earned enough money to start his own place, he would leave and make a name for himself.

However, after this big of a mess, he might have to leave sooner than he expected.

Sanji made a pained noise at the back of his throat. So much edible food wasted. No customers were going to come and eat second rate meals lest rotting food. And he couldn’t possibly take anything home. Judging from the stuff outside, things would go bad as soon as it leaves the fridge.

There was no canned or preserved food in this restaurant since they promoted fresh and organic ingredients. But there was a small emergency freezer by the far corner of the kitchen. He slithered over and took a peek inside. Then let out a short and nervous laugh when he saw the supplies. They looked fine. Good, in fact.

He stood by the freezer, looked into it for a good minute, and pretended that everything was normal.

Except everything was not normal. Food wouldn’t spoil within the span of minutes. This must be a nightmare. Or he must have gotten hit by a bus on his way to work, died, and ended up in hell.

Sanji stepped out of the kitchen and back into the dining area. The place had calmed down drastically since a few minutes ago. Most of the customers had left. Only a few remained and were arguing for refund.

He rubbed at his temples and fished out a cigarette. He was not supposed to smoke on the job, but looking around, it was safe to say that he wouldn’t be needed in the kitchen for the rest of his day. _Or the rest of his life._ He was as good as fired.

The annoying customers were persistent. Sanji clenched his jaws and took a deep drag of his smoke before he stomped it on the ground. He had enough of bullshit in one day.

“Cut it out.” Sanji snapped, “go home.”

He was being harsher than he normally would, considering that there was also a lady amongst the group. But he was tired. Frustrated as well. He was willing to pay anything just to go home and sleep, and not think about the impossibility of this situation.

The customers turned to Sanji and opened their mouth to banter but was cut off by a throat tearing scream. It came from outside the restaurant and sounded extremely close, only a few storefronts away. The hair on the back of Sanji’s neck stood up, and a cold, cruel sensation licked down his spine.

He hurried to the window while trying to avoid the glass shards on the floor. there were people running and tripping on their feet to scramble away. Away from what?

A feeling of dread poured into his stomach and filled all the way to his throat. Something was happening outside this restaurant as well. Perhaps something even worse than rotten food.

Sanji turned to everyone in the room and quickly said, “Something bad is happening, forget about money, go home.”

“If dangerous things are happening outside, then I think we should stay inside.” A guy responded.

“No. No, that’s a bad idea.” Sanji retaliated.

But he had no evidence or reason to support his argument. It was simply just a gut feeling. Whatever that guy said sounded logical, but Sanji wasn’t thinking straight. For some odd reason, all of his survival instincts screamed at him to run. An faint and invisible pressure tingled around him, he could almost feel it, almost tangible at his fingertips.

Someone or something was coming. From down the street. They should go. _Now_.

The customers started arguing again, telling Sanji how stupid it was to run outside. He wanted to yell at them, but there was no time.

“Do whatever you want.” Was the last thing Sanji Said before he pushed open the glass doors and bolted.

He wasn’t too sure why he just did that. Every leaping step he took, his actions seemed more and more unreasonable. What if there was a shooter or a crazy guy driving on the pedestrian walkway, then he would certainly be better off staying indoors.

But Sanji just couldn’t shake off that feeling. As if a powerful predator had set their piercing eyes upon him, and their shadow loomed over him like mountains that covered the sun.

Sanji ran mindlessly, following the flow of the crowd.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, a little bit of body horror and gore in this chapter. Proceed with caution.

Sanji’s heart thudded painfully fast. Blood pulsed and throbbed in his body. His entire being vibrated with distress and a deep, jaw-clenching terror. 

Through the thin fabrics of his uniform, the synthetic strings of the carpet itched at his back. He hoped that the floorboards would swallow him, and calm his swarming mind. 

The ashtray next to him was overflowing. But the mass amount of inhaling and exhaling did nothing to calm his breathlessness. With a shaking hand, he reached into his pockets to grab another cigarette. However, the little cardboard box was empty. 

Breathe in through the nose. Breathe out through the mouth. 

He was safe. Lying between the sofa and the coffee table inside his apartment. The door was firmly locked, too. Sanji checked many times. 

When he had ran from the restaurant, he had no time to plan his next move. A dense and oppressive energy drove him to move his legs and take steps after steps. This strange feeling was difficult to describe, almost like physical waves repetitively crashing onto him. In retrospect, he was unable to compare it to anything he had experienced before. 

Whether if other people experienced the same phenomenon, he did not know. What Sanji knew was the source of the energy came from the direction that he was running away from. So he rapidly came to the conclusion that it couldn’t be anything good. 

The pedestrian street gave way to a traffic road. When he skidded to a halt by the kerb, the people around him did not. Tires screeched and breaks were slammed. His vision flooded with red lights. The blare of the horns caused another layer of panic over the already frantic public. Whatever they were running away from must be worse than getting rammed by a car. Sanji swallowed his nervousness. 

The chaos was immense. It was impossible for the cars to move even an inch. Some people hopped out of their vehicle to check on the situation, mostly out of frustration but also curiosity. He had a bad feeling that this time, satisfaction wouldn’t bring the cat back. 

In his moments of hesitance, time had wasted away. As he saw the crowd thinned beside him, he also felt the mysterious energy press closer. Just as he was about to pick up his legs and move, a guttural and ear scraping shriek pierced over the panicked shouts. 

Sanji’s limbs felt like molasses as he pushed himself to move. He was certain that it was the same horrible noise that he had heard in the restaurant. Experiencing it a second time shot a queasy and sickly tingle from the base of his feet to his scalp. 

The energy increased in intensity. He tried to run faster but moving felt like wading through wet sand under the suffocating summer sun. In the moment of raw panic, he turned to look behind. Although he couldn’t see much through the scattered forms of people, what he saw was more than enough. 

The attacker was not a shooter or some crazy-knife-kid like he had expected. It was something worse. Far worse. 

The thing was a tangle of limbs and broken flesh, stretched out unnaturally beneath its tight and diseased skin. It looked like someone blended parts of a person and a dog, then forcefully merged them together. 

All of its facial organs were jumbled, there were not enough eyes but too many pairs of ears. When it opened its horrible mouth, Sanji saw the distinct shape of a man’s face clogged at the entrance of its throat. It was moving as well. 

A broken shrill tore from the thing, the same nightmarish wail that sent fear that gripped him like the talons of an eagle clasping on a hare. He was completely cold on the spot. 

The scream sounded awfully human. Oh God. 

Sanji snapped his head to look away but in his peripheral, he saw the creature’s jaws clamp on someone’s torso, and the flesh was torn clean with a wet shred. 

A sudden surge of nauseousness forced him out of his trance. He jumped up from the carpet and ran to the bathroom. 

When he looked up into the mirror, it seemed like nothing was out of place. He tried the tap and was relieved to see water flowing out. Hot water, too. After cleaning up, he dug out his phone. There were no messages, for he rarely contacted anyone these days. Especially not his family. But there was a signal, and the internet was still working. 

He opened up his social media feed and was not surprised when what happened earlier went crazy viral. Conspiracy theories popped up like bubbles in boiling water. There were a few videos as well. Sanji didn’t click into them. 

He put his phone back into his pocket and slowly, almost at a leisurely pace, walked back to the living room. With a flick, he watched diluted yellow lights glow in the daylight. The normality of things pulled uncomfortably at his chest. If not for the distant sirens and car alarms, this could be just another Thursday. 

However, he watched enough late-night survival horror movies to know that these things wouldn’t last for long. When the electricity and water supplies cut off, there would be mass panic citywide. And in such a metropolis like this… Resources would run out quick, people might even start fighting each other. He needed to get out of here.

He could go to the country, steal some poor man’s farmhouse and live the rest of his life barricading windows at night. Sanji let out a chuckle at the absurdity of it. Could wood planks even stop those things? 

How were the government even going to respond to this? They weren’t the ones that created those bastards were they? He didn’t have the energy to think about conspiracy ideas. What he wanted to do now, was to plan how he was going to survive this. 

He hoped that he was just exaggerating, and it was just one creature that escaped some twisted laboratory. It would be captured, taken away and everyone would be hypnotised to forget everything. 

However, the energy crept back to lap at his heels. It wasn’t as strong as before to send him jumping to scramble away. But it was enough to have unease slick down his throat. 

There was a hiking bag hidden in the deep end of his closet. For back when he used to go camping with a few good college friends. He had lost contact with all of them when they each went their separate ways. He hoped that they were okay. He hoped that they left the country, or at least this city, like they said they would. Anywhere was better than here currently. 

Nostalgia and sorrow pressed on him like a cold stone slab. He had no ways of contacting his old friends. He didn’t have their numbers or address anymore. That was one of the many things he had regretted ever since-

Parting was a lot heavier than he had thought. 

Sanji grabbed the bag and shuffled into the kitchen. Survival horror taught him that food and water would be the first thing to run out, and the hardest to find. 

He did not have the heart to open the fridge, so he went straight to the pantry. Unlike the restaurant, he had a few preserved and canned edibles in the cupboard. A good chef doesn’t have to rely only on expensive and superior ingredients to create extraordinary cuisine. 

An audible sigh of relief escaped his mouth as he examined the cans. They looked as good as they could be sitting in the pantries. No odd smells or air bulges. Sanji quickly shoved all of them into the bag. 

He then went through the kitchen and grabbed things he deemed useful. The knives and the cleaver, some cleaning wipes and a towel. He went to the bathroom and swiped everything in the medicine cabinet into the bag. A torch was found in the back of a cabinet and some batteries, too. 

There was no more room, but he still had a list of things he needed to bring. He wondered if he should take his car. It would be safe and less tiring than walking, but it would be hell to drive if the roads still looked like what he had seen. However, the more problematic thing was that Sanji needed to make a trip to the local corner store. There were a few things that he lacked in his house, like bottle water, bandages and more food if they weren't all taken already. 

In all honesty, Sanji was acting on autopilot. He wasn’t really processing the situation. The constant flow of adrenaline and the energy swishing around the back of his mind tuned out all possible rational thoughts. However, with one hand on the handle of the exit and the other clutching the bag, he wasn’t as confident as before. 

This was real. What happened was real. There really was a mangled creature loose on the streets. If he decided to leave for good, he could never return. 

He had been living in this little space for more than 4 years now. Ever since uni, this was where he stayed. Although some parts of the walls were still blank white, this apartment provided him with freedom and an escape from his old life. 

Leaving was a big decision to make, but with the ever-pressing urgency of the energy, he really didn’t have a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you for reading and please tell me if you found any mistakes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't posted for like 3 months. I just suddenly lost interest in this ship and this fic. Here is half a chapter that I wrote a long time ago but never published because I didn't think I would finish it. And now looking at it I still can't find the interest to finish it. If you want to read it, here it is.

Katakuri gritted his teeth and let out a low growl under his breath. Wind whipped his clothes and scarf as he cruised down the highway. His entire body was tense and agitated, he was impatient. With a twist of the throttle, his bike purred and accelerated. 

_Current mission status: incomplete. Progress: 0%. Total target number: 5. Targets eliminated: 0. Current target information: the Vins-_

Another growl cut off the droning synthetic voice. Katakuri knew the consequences of leaving a mission unfinished, especially if its important to mama like this one. But there were more important things to do.

The last time he communicated with Pudding was before their private family transmission line was cut off. That was five days ago. She was stationed in downtown... The epicentre of the incident - yesterday. Katakuri edged his bike faster.

No warning was released before their private line was cut, no warning before Subject Hotel was released. This seemed awfully planned to be coincidental. Along with Pudding, there were at least a dozen Charlottes stationed in downtown. _What were they thinking!_

His destination was 5 kilometres in front of him. The highway ended a few minutes ago. Already, the roads were littered by abandoned cars. Some neatly parked by the side as if the owners would come back to fetch it when everything returned to normal. Katakuri knew it wouldn't. Once operation Metamorphosis kickstarted, the old society was as good as dead.

~~

The backpack was heavy. It reminded Sanji of the days treading through dirt tracks under thick and overbearing trees on a hot summer day. Nami would complain and he would offer to carry her bags, he would also offer the same to Robin, but she would smile faintly and shake her head.

Ussop would be observing some bugs in the undergrowth while holding Chopper's hand - the kid that he's babysitting but always brings along to their dangerous adventures despite the girls' protests. Franky, whose slightly older than the rest of them would trail in the back of the pack playing his ukulele while Brook sings along. Zoro would be god knows where. And Luffy. Luffy would be miles ahead of them, always so energetic.

None of them was here now. Sanji hoped they were somewhere far away.

The streets where quiet, a drastic contrast to a few hours ago where everyone was panic induced and scrambling to get away. Luckily, the energy that radiated off that, _that thing_ , was no longer present, so Sanji walked freely on the road. Slightly less strung up.

In the distance, he could see the sun hung low on the horizon. The sky above him grey and ashy. There wasn't much daylight left, what happens after dark was not something he wanted to witness to satisfy his curiosity. He hurried his pace and finally arrived at the gas station and convenience store attached to it.

The automatic door was broken. Sanji stood peering by the glass to observe the unlit room. From the limited sunlight that filtered into the store, he could see empty racks and cardboard boxes that was flung around the place. It must have happened before the owners left, seeing the door was still intact and there were no shattered windows.

Sanji was quite hesitant to break in. He was unsure if noise can be a factor that attracts that thing. He walked around the parameter trying to find a route in, but there seemed to be no other choice than smashing the front door.

Looking around he found a plastic crate that was used to hold drinks. It felt quite light when he picked it up but he hoped it would be enough. He was always weak in his upper body so putting all the strength he had into it - he flung the crate at the door and cringed at the loudness as the box only shook the glass but bounced off the door and skidded on the concrete. Dammit.

Sanji was frustrated, perhaps also with a taste of desperation that sat at the back of his throat as he watched the sun sink lower. Instead of trying to find something sturdier to break the door, he backed up a few meters then lunged himself forward to slam his kick on the glass. A satisfying crunch then his whole body followed through the momentum and landed him inside. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if I'm being an awful person right now. I know, I hate abandoned fics as well. But I just feel no motivation in writing this and I want to move on to other projects without this piece weighing on me. I feel like I was too rash when I started this fic, I planned it but I think I put too much pressure on myself that writing this feels like a chore now. Bit off more than I could chew kind of thing. 
> 
> I'm marking this work as complete for now. I definitely want to finish it later since I do have the story and a lot of future chapters planned. But that won't be happening anytime soon and would possibly be years in the future. 
> 
> Again, I'm sorry.


End file.
